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F. R. BATCHELDER.

WOVEN CARRIER. APPLICATION FILED APR. 1.5. 1918.

Patented Dec. 16,1919.

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FRANK R. .BATCHELDER, 0F WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNIVERSAL PATENTS COMPANY, A CGRPOBATON OF RHODE ISLAND.

WOVEN CARRIER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented peche, V1919.

Original application filed December 26, 1916, Serial No. 138,720. Divided and this application led April 15, 1918. Serial o. 228,553.

T0 all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, FRANKR. -BATGHEL- Dun, a citizen of the United States, residing at ldlorcester, in the county of Worcester, State of Masachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful improvement in l/Voven Carriers, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings. Y

The invention has relation to carriers consisting` of woven material which is formed into pockets or loops adapted to serve 'as receptacles. More especially it relates, though not exclusively, to ammunition carriers, and in particular to those having pockets to contain individual cartridges. The principle of the invention is applicable in the case of various kinds of carriers, including those adapted to be worn as belts or otherwise, but an important embodiment thereof is in a cartridge carrier or belt for use in machineguns.

rifhe invention is a division of that forming the subject of my application for S. Letters Patent for improvement in woven lcarriers, filed Dec. 26, 1915, Serial No.

138,720, in which I have claimed broadly a carrier having a series of heavy threads or cords superficially attached in the weaving to a sui-face of a woven strip consituting a loopor pocket-wall, with the said heavy threads or cords shown as thus attached to that portion of the pocket or loop which encircles the reduced portion and bullet of an inserted cartridge. The present division of the general invention covered by the parent application aforesaid, consists, stated in,

general terms, in ya carrier of the general class aforesaid having heavy threads or cords superficially attached in the weaving to the inner surface of one or each of the loopor pocket-walls. One function of the threads or cords thus applied is to thicken the said portion of the pocket or loop. Another is to engage frictionally with the small end and bullet of the cartridge to assist in holding the cartridge in the pocket or loop.

feretofore, the thickening e'ect referred to has been produced either by takin for the pocket-wall a previously, woven strip of somewhat greater width than the length of the desired pockets, and prior to making up the carrier or belt doubling one marginal portion of such strip over upon the portion alongside thereof, and securing the doubled-over portion in place by means of stitches or otherwise; or by increasing the number of warp-threads of ordinary character employedv in weaving one marginal portion of the strip and so interweaving them as to form an increased thickness of web, sometimes in the form of ribs or beads. ln these latter cases, the thickening and the ribs or beads are homogeneous with the remainder of the strip, yowing to the mode of interweaving the warp-threads with the weft or filling, and thereby they are differentiated from the characteristic feature of the present invention, namely the added heavy threads or cords superficially attached in the weaving to the inner surface of a woven strip. The said heavy threads or cords superficially attached to the inner surface of a woven strip are contradistinguished from a mere increase of thickness, or a beaded effect upon the outside of the strip, due to a greater multiplicity of ordinary warp-threads and a change of weave.

The nature of the invention is illustrated in the drawings, in which latten- Figure l is a view on the order of a perspective showing illustrative embodiment of the invention, namely, in a portion of the length of a woven carrieror belt, certain parts being broken away or removed in order to show features of construction more clearly.

FiO. 2 is a view in vertical section through a pocket or loop. y

vThe invention is shown embodied in a woven carrier or belt of a well-known type composed of two woven strips 1, l, placed face to face and secured together by pairs of metal binders 2, 2, etc., 3, 3, etc., at regular intervals to form pockets for containing single cartridges e, 4, etc., the two metal pieces constituting a pair of binders being located at opposite sides of the two woven strips and being fastened together, with the woven strips between them, by eyeletiivets 5, 5, etc. This particular carrier or belt is designed for use in machine-guns and accordingly, as usual, certain (2, 2, etc.) of the pairs of binders project farther from one edge of the carrier or belt than the points of the bullets of the cartridges contained in the pockets, to serve to guide the lso carrier or belt as it is fed through a machine-gun, these pairs being known specificially as guides, and the outer extremities of the pair 2, 2, constituting a guide being secured together by an eyelet-rivet 6, as shown.

At 7 7, etc., are the heavy threads o1' cords lying upon the inner surfaces of the bodywebs of the respective woven strips. These heavy threads or cords are bound or tied conveniently, as by threads of the bodyweb, to the web-surface, as for instance by loops, 8, S, etc.,-o'f the weft or filling of the body-Web.

The respective series of heavy threads or cords coperate with the applied binders 2, 2, 3, 3, in the present instance, to reduce the internal dimensions and capacity of those portions of the filled pockets or loops which are occupied by the bullets. Thereby is secured the desired result of causing a snug fit of the bullets and adjacent reduced portions of the shells within the said portions, and also an expansion of the latter more or less so as to obviate tendency to longitudinal edgewise curvature of the filled carrier or belt due to unequal extents of eX- pansion adjacent the opposite edges of the carrier or belt. This expansion of the portions of the pockets which contain the reduced parts and bullets of the cartridges renders the two portions of every pocket or loop substantially equal in external diameter. Consequently the pushers of the machine-gun act equally against the eX- teriors of the two portions of a pocket or loop so as to feed-the carrier or belt straight forward in its passage through the gun, without tendency to skew the carrier or belt edgewise by reason of unequal rates of feed at or adjoining the two edges of the carrier or belt.

In the drawings the transverse width of the thickening band constituted by the heavy threads or cords is such that the linnermost of the latter coincides with the right position for the shoulder of the small or open end of the shell of a cartridge, thus provi-ding for defining the extent of entrance of a cartridge into a pocket or loop.

Preferably, as herein shown, though not necessarily in all cases, the heavy threads or cords constitute in effect a separate ply upon the inner surface of the body-web of each of the respective strips. The invention is not in all cases restricted to utilization in carriers or belts made up with the aid of metal binders. Although usually the carrier or belt will be made up of separate woven strips fastened together, as in the illustrated instance, the invention is not restricted to application to a carrier or belt thus made.

`What is claimed as the invention is,-

l. A woven carrier consisting of two woven strips placed face to face and secured together at intervals to form pockets or loops constituting receptacles, the said strips as woven each having heavy threads or cords superficially attached'in the weaving to the inner surface thereof.

2. A carrier or belt consisting of woven material which is formed into pockets or loops adapted to serve as receptacles for individual cartridges, and having heavy threads or cords superficially attached in the weaving upon the inner surface of a loop or pocket-wall.

3. A carrier consisting of woven material which is formed into pockets or loops adapted to serve as receptacles for individual cartridges, and having a series of heavy threads or cords superficially attached in the weaving upon the inner surface of a loop or pocket-wall, the said series making a thickening and constricting band on a portion of the pocket or loop.

4L. A carrier or belt consisting of woven material which is formed Ainto pockets or loops adapted to serve as receptacles for individual cartridges, and having heavy threads or cords superficially attached in the weaving upon the opposite inner surfaces of a loop or pocket.

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FRANK R. BATCHELDER.

Witnesses FRANCES A. MILLER, ALICE M. TISDALE. 

